Kwantung

Kwantung was a territory in the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula of China which was ruled by Japan from 1905 to 1945. It was a territorial concession made to Japan after the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, with the Qing dynasty recompensating Japan for its xenophobia against Japanese people in China under Empress Dowager Cixi; the Russian Empire occupied the territory instead of Japan, leading to the 1905 Russo-Japanese War and the Japanese capture of Kwantung. The territory included Port Arthur (Lushunkou) and Dairen (Dalian), two major ports, and Kwantung remained in Japanese hands until the end of World War II in 1945, when it became a part of China.